AP File PhotoPolish-born filmmaker and Academy Award winner Roman Polanski arrives for the opening ceremony at the 8th Marrakech Film Festival in Marrakech, Morocco.

LOS ANGELES - Lawyers for Roman Polanski, a fugitive in France for 30 years because of the notorious sex case involving a 13-year-old girl, filed a request Tuesday to dismiss the charge against him because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

The motion alleges that a documentary about Polanski released earlier this year revealed "a pattern of misconduct and improper communications" between the district attorney's office and the judge in Polanski's case.

Poland-born Polanski has been living in self-imposed exile from the United States since fleeing in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

A few odds and ends cluttering up the offices of Project Mayhem, Inc. today, all worthy of sharing:

Some 'Steam Experiment' tidbits
Shot in Grand Rapids in September, "The Steam Experiment"'s Internet Movie Database page boasts a movie poster and a still image of scantily clad people in a steam room. Furthering the suspicion that it's a goofy B-movie, I found this sort-of-old article at horror-flick site Bloody Disgusting. Interesting that they compare it to "Saw," eh?

New Web site for Detroit Film Critics Society
A few of you may know that I belong to the Detroit Film Critics Society, which formed in 2007 and votes on the best actors, directors, movies, etc. every December. Well, feel free to peruse our snazzy new Web site, which includes critic bios and other fun stuff.

Courtesy PhotoGood lord: "Four Christmases," a pestilence of a non-comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, earned the most dough over the long weekend.

The diseased tragedy of a movie "Four Christmases" tops the Turkey Day weekend box office, and it seems appropriate -- if your holiday bird was rancid and infected with botulism or salmonella.

I'm tempted to say the millions grossed by this not-funny Reese Witherspoon/Vince Vaughn romp is an example of the divide between film critics and the average moviegoing audience. But that's making the naive assumption that people actually enjoyed the movie, and thought the scenes of Witherspoon wailing on children were a laff riot.

AP Photo"Four Christmases": Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn star.

LOS ANGELES -- Thanksgiving weekend movie crowds gobbled up the Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn holiday comedy "Four Christmases," which debuted at No. 1 with $31.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Warner Bros. release, featuring Witherspoon and Vaughn as a couple suffering through four separate family holiday gatherings, raised its total to $46.7 million since opening Wednesday to get a head start on the long weekend.

Poppy (Sally Hawkins) drives driving instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan) around the bend in HAPPY-GO-LUCKY.

In HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, writer-director Mike Leigh has given his star, the effervescent Sally Hawkins, a particularly tricky assignment: Her character, a grade school teacher named Poppy, is endlessly optimistic and perky.

Seemingly nothing gets her down. If people treat her coldly or callously, she laughs it off. Situations that would send lesser mortals into fits of agony barely register with Poppy at all. She spots a book called "The Road to Reality" on a bookstore shelf and pushes it aside. "Don't want to be going there!" she says, gleefully.

Photo Courtesy Disney-PixarHot electronics: Anything from the movie "WALL-E," shown here in the animated sci-fi hit, will be a winner this holiday season.

Put a little hope under the Christmas tree this year.

Now, before I get accused of stealing political slogans, keep in mind that within my cinematic jurisdiction, 2008's biggest purveyor of hope is none other than the adorable little hunk of rusted metal known as WALL-E.

The Pixar robot would make it a cuddly Christmas, for sure. On the other hand, the Joker would make it a twisted Christmas, but just as much fun. And I'd wager many people have "WALL-E" and "The Dark Knight" on their wish list for Santa -- just as they top my list of 10 must-have, movie-related gifts for the holiday season. Here's my gift-worthy list:

AP PhotoPerennially perky: Sally Hawkins stars as Poppy in "Happy-Go-Lucky."

"Happy-Go-Lucky" is a comical character study that breaks into drama at unexpected moments or slips cautiously into philosophical poetry in the quiet of night scenes. Beyond difficulties it may present to American ears because of variable Cockney dialects, it's a good film about a good person.

Her name is Poppy (Sally Hawkins), and at first I found her insufferably cheerful, grinningly obnoxious. I identified, in fact, with a surly bookseller in the film's first scene. In between giggles, Poppy tells him, "I like your hat," along with a few other meaningless salutations. Wanting merely to get through the morning without having to suck up to customers, he ignores her, even though she promises him his day will get better.

Will Smith was a surly superhero in this summer blockbuster, new on DVD this week.

"Hancock" (PG-13) -- Smith plays the depressed, frequently drunk, vagrant, superpowered Hancock, who gets a public-relations agent (Jason Bateman) to help restore his image in this action-comedy. It's a crowd-pleaser until it flies off the rails about halfway through.

Available in theatrical and unrated versions.

AP PhotoRigged to blow: Jason Statham appears in "Transporter 3.'

While adolescent girls gush at "Twilight," their male counterparts can take refuge in "Transporter 3," an action travelogue that rushes fast and furious from one European city to another.

Only the worst kind of deficit disorder will prevent youthful excitement from the movie's continuous string of chases and kick-fights, along with the splendor of wish-fulfillment as a beautiful woman forces the hero to do a striptease so he can get his car keys back.

AP Photo"Four Christmases": Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn star.

In "Four Christmases," Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn play an unmarried, 30-ish pair of DINKs -- y'know, Double Income No Kids.

But that term may have a less flattering definition within the context of this movie. Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) are a couple of selfish buffoons whose Christmas tradition involves telling their parents they're traveling to impoverished countries to help feed undernourished children but, in truth, they're scuba-diving and sipping cocktails in a tropical paradise. That way, they avoid visiting their insufferable relatives.